Diary of a witness to the war in Africa

Diary of a Witness to the War in Africa is the best known of Pedro Antonio de Alarcón’s travel books. In it he narrates his impressions of the African War of 1859, in a vivid and realistic way. It narrates from the inside the life that the soldiers led in that campaign in Moroccan territory and the places where they moved.
This book comes from the journalistic accounts that Pedro Antonio de Alarcón sent to his editor during the conflict and contains an extensive description of military life, known by Alarcón who enlisted as a volunteer at the beginning of the wars in the Spanish colonies in Morocco.
Here also appear numerous characters of Spanish politics of those times. These include Juan Prim, who later overthrew Queen Isabella II of Bourbon and was president of Spain, and Leopoldo O’Donnell, who came to occupy the same government position.
Diary of a Witness to the War in Africa (1861) is the chronicle of this experience, an unusual vision of Islam and Hispanic nationalism. Pedro Antonio de Alarcón was shot in combat, and his book was so popular that fifty thousand copies were sold at the time.
El Diario is the heroic account of Spain’s war actions in the Maghreb. Alarcón seems a strange mix of romantic and colonial patriot. He writes fascinated by the African adventure and by the Spanish victories in this war now almost forgotten. However, it should be noted that he was one of the first to denounce the political manipulation that took place around this contest.